FORMER WWE STAR ANDREW 'TEST' MARTIN FOUND DEAD AT AGE 33 by Mike Johnson @ 2009-03-14 02:00:00
PWInsider.com is sad to report that former WWE star Andrew "Test"Martin was found dead in his apartment in Tampa, Florida at the age of 33, just four days shy of his 34th birthday. We don't have much in the way of details at this time. Tampa area authorities have declined to officially confirm it is Martin they found but word within the industry has been widespread the last few hours.
Originally born in Whitby, Ontario Canada, Martin was discovered randomly by then-top WWF star Bret Hart in a restaurant. Recognizing the potential of a 6'6', 300 pounder, Hart offered to train Martin and help break him into the business. Martin quit his jobs and trained for eight months under Hart and Leo Burke in Calgary. At the same time,Hart was helping several other young Canadian talents including future WWE champion Edge, and future NWA champion Christian Cage, among others.
He was quickly signed to one of the early WWF developmental deals in the late 1990s, Martin would be brought in for camps under former NWA World champion Dory Funk Jr. and Dr. Tom Prichard. The camps included names like Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle, Steve Corino, a young Teddy Hart, Shawn Stasiak, Devon (Crowbar) Storm, and Tiger Ali Singh, among others, so there was a huge talent wealth there at the time.
In his 1998 debut on WWF television, Martin appeared as a roadie for heavy metal band Motley Crue during a musical performance where he"removed" a fan that had gotten on stage. He was quickly made a member of Vince McMahon's Corporation under the ring name "Test", which was short for Testosterone. He made his PPV debut for the company at the1999 Royal Rumble, competing in that match and made his Wrestlemania debut at Mania 15, teaming with D'Lo Brown while challenging then-WWF Tag Team champions Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett in Hart's last Mania bout before his death several months later.
After turning babyface, Martin was scripted into a relationship with a young, babyface Stephanie McMahon that was exposed via G-TV, a series of mysterious cameras capturing WWF talents in out of the ring,backstage situations (sort of a predecessor r to today's paparazzi, TMZ type "journalism"). The relationship led to an angry Shane McMahon feuding with Test, which culminated at Summerslam 1999 in Chicago with a "Love Her or Leave Her" match where Test had to beat McMahon in order to be accepted. Inside the ring, it was probably the high point of his career as the two had a hell of a brawl. Stephanie and Test's on-screen romance continued, complete with engagement and a wedding live on Raw.
As is the case with all WWE weddings, there was a twist and in hindsight, it was the most successful one for any wedding angle the company has ever produced. The storyline that top heel Triple H had drugged Stephanie the night before and gotten her to marry him in Las Vegas, revealed on the Titantron in the middle of the ceremony live on Monday Night Raw. The storyline from that point on focused on HHH vs.Vince McMahon, with Stephanie turning heel on her father, having been in on the plot. The angle later turned to real life as Triple H is for all intents and purposes married into the company.
From a storylinestandpoint, Martin was left out of the top mix of the company's rosterand never got as high in the hierarchy as he did during that era. Hewas repackaged as heel, teaming with Albert (current New Japan starGiant Bernard) as T&A, managed by the debuting Trish Stratus, whowas just breaking into the company as a former fitness model wholegitimately was a huge wrestling fan before being signed. After theteam broke up, Martin was back as a babyface and won the Europeanchampionship from William Regal in 2001. He dropped the title to EddieGuerrero at Wrestlemania 17 in Houston after interference from theother Radicalz.
Martin ended up a heel yet again as part of the WCW/ECW Alliance laterthat year, holding both the WWE and WCW Tag Team belts with Booker T aswell as the WWE Intercontinental championship during that period. Atthe 2001 Survivor Series, Martin lost the IC belt to Edge, who unifiedit with the WCW United States championship. He also had a short runwith the hot potato Hardcore championship. With the idea that theAlliance vs. WWE war was coming to an end and those who lost could befired, Test went on to insert himself into an "Immunity" Battle Royal,which he won with the gimmick being that he couldn't be let go by WWEfor a year.
In 2002, he bounced around a number of different storylinegimmicks. He was part of the Un-Americans with Lance Storm, Christianand William Regal. He was Stacy Keibler's charge as she tried tochange his image and claim his fans were his "Testicles" in an all-timeso bad it was good idea. He went to the finals of that year's King ofthe Ring tournament, later losing to eventual winner and current UFCchampion Brock Lesnar. The relationship with Keibler eventually turnedinto a real life one for the couple. After she left the company andbecame an ABC darling via "Dancing With the Stars", Martin would laterwrite online how proud he was of her success and that he often told herwhile they were dating that she would go on to do something bigger thanprofessional wrestling.
Scott Steiner was brought into the company. Despite being one of thetop names in WCW when it imploded in 2001, Steiner was sent to themid-card after a feud with then WWE champion Triple H and put into atag team with Martin. The two ended up at odds of Keibler's servicesbut later reunited with the idea she was their slave.
Martin ended up out of action with a neck injury and was forced toundergo spinal fusion surgery that would keep him out of action for atleast a year. In a move that was heavily criticized at the time, WorldWrestling Entertainment released Martin on 11/1/04, four months afterthe surgery and at least eight months before he would be able toreturn. At the time, WWE's John Laurinaitis promised to give Martin alook when he was ready, but the very idea that Martin, who had spenthis entire professional career with the company and had broken his neckworking there, could be fired as he recovered, sent a shockwave throughthe company's roster.
Exactly a year later, Martin discussed the release while writing aboutthe November 2005 passing of former WWE champion Eddie Guerrero,commenting, "Lookat me. I break my neck in the ring had to have two discs taken out ofmy neck and a steel plate put in and was told at the time by Johnny Acewhen I asked if my job would be in jeopardy, 'We don't fire people withinjuries like that.' Hmm, that's funny, because two months aftersurgery I got fired because I wasn't working. My seven years of bustingmy *** for them and putting over the boss's son while my foot wasbroken in a cast was all forgotten about.When Johnny Ace called me andtold me they were releasing me - which of course he put all the heat onVince - I said to him, 'What kind of message are you sending the boysthat if they get hurt they are going to get fired?' So all the guys whodon't want to lose their jobs, what do they do? Pop a couple ofPercocet or Vicodin and mask the pain because god forbid they say theyare hurt and lose their job. I'm not going to name any names, but Iknow at least a dozen or so wrestlers who are addicted to these thingsfor that very reason. Get hurt, lose your job. I just turned 30, myback aches everyday, I have a metal plate in my neck, and yes I got inthe business at the right time and have a lot of nice things, but is itall worth it? You guys don't see the ugly side of this business. Yes,wrestling is entertainment, but the bumps and bruises are real andsometimes they don't go away. So think long and hard before you get inthis business because I can tell you first hand that if you're notworking or making them money they don't give a ****."作者: Psycho 時間: 2009-3-14 03:51 PM
Martin returned to the ring in the summer of 2005, working forNu-Wrestling in Italy, which was being booked by former WWE starRikishi Phatu. He made several convention appearances as well.
During this period, Eddie Guerrero died in a Minnesota hotel room dueto an enlarged heart giving out on him, a complication from the drugshe had taken during his career. Martin, completely removed from WWE atthe time, wrote,"I'mactually wondering who's next? Who's next to die? I can think of atleast 15 to 20 people who have died from various things - mostlyprescription pain killers. For all you wanna be wrestlers who wanna getin this business, especially now when WWE doesn't pay you anymore thanyou would make at a 9 to 5 job, let me break some things down foryou. When I started wrestling I had never seen or heard of Vicodin orPercocet or Soma. How come so many wrestlers die from these medicationsand football players and hockey players don't? The answer is simple -wrestlers, especially WWE wrestlers, work five days a week all yearlong taking bump after bump in the ring. A doctor explained it to melike this: Every time you take a fall in the ring it's like gettingrear-ended by a car going 20 mph, so how many bumps in the ring a nightdo you take? Multiply that by how many times a week you work all yearlong. That's a hell of a lot of whiplash and pain. I can rememberhearing a conversation from some unnamed WWE head guys talking abouthow this certain person needs to go to rehab but they couldn't send himbecause he was to important to the show. That's the reality people thatis how we are treated."
Despite being extremely critical of WWE's use of Eddie Guerrero's nameafter his death, including one blog where he said it wanted to "make mepuke", Martin was still brought back to the WWE fold. He was signed toa new deal in March 2006 and placed into the relaunched ECW brand laterthat year as a heel. He most notably feuded with then-ECW championBobby Lashley late in the year going into 2007. After being defeatedby Lashley clean several times, he disappeared from television.
Despite his earlier writings about the drug scene in the wrestlingbusiness, Martin ended up suspended under the WWE Wellness Policy andwas released shortly afterwards. At the time, Martin claimed it was amutual release that he asked the company for.
After departing WWE, Martin made several appearances for TNA in thesummer of 2007, teaming with Sting and Abyss in a a winning boutagainst AJ Styles, Christian and Tomko. With a feeling his hugephysique was neon sign for the impending United States Congressinvestigation into the business following the Benoit family tragedy andalso a feeling that his attitude didn't jibe well with the TNA lockerroom, he wasn't signed and was never brought back.
Through his Myspace.com account, Martin would often write aboutdifferent views on the wrestling business and was critical of whatWWE's developmental program had turned into after it was moved toFlorida. In one blog, he complained that too many of the studentswould care too much about partying and not enough about studying tapesand learning the business. One talent signed to WWE who was stationedin FCW at the time responded that other than dropping Kelly Kelly (whohe was dating) off, Martin had never actually come to the facility.
Martin was arrested for a DUI in April 2008. The police report at thetime claimed Martin failed a field sobriety test and that he continuedto fall asleep in the arresting officer's vehicle after being takeninto custody. At the time, The Tampa Tribune noted that he had ahistory of traffic violations but Martin responded, "ConsideringI don't drink alcohol or do drugs I don't know how the DUI is going tostand." When the newspaper asked Martin if he was still a wrestler, hecommented that it was something he "didn't want to get into."
As noted, in recent years, Martin had beendatingWWE Raw Diva Kelly Kelly and at one point, he publicly praisedher forsaving his life when he had a medical emergency, believed bysome tohave been an OD. According to those I spoke to tonight, thetwo hadsplit recently, about 6-8 weeks back. Although Martin hadpushed thathe was retiring from the business as far back as December2007, he wasstill making appearances overseas. As recently as lastmonth, he workedin Japan on shows promoted by Big Van Vader and wasscheduled to leavethis week for a European tour of several countries.
Our deepest condolences to Martin's family, friends and fans at this time.作者: stevten 時間: 2009-7-26 11:12 PM
